Effective Preventive Strategies to Prevent Secondary Transmission of COVID-19 in Hemodialysis Unit: The First Month of Community Outbreak in Taiwan

Background: Dialyzed patients are vulnerable to coronavirus infection disease 2019 (COVID-19). The incidence and outcome of COVID-19 in hemodialysis (HD) patients in Taiwan remain unclear. A series of preventive measures were executed to combat COVID-19 transmission among HD patients. Methods: We ca...

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Main Authors: Chun-Yu Chen, Jung-Jr Ye, Ting-Shuo Huang, Chin-Chan Lee, Yih-Ting Chen, Cheng-Kai Hsu, Heng-Jung Hsu, Chiao-Yin Sun, Heng-Chih Pan, Kuo-Su Chen, Hao-Hsi Kao, Chia-Chun Ko, Yun-Hsuan She, Chun-Ying Wu, Chi-Chun Lai, Shang-Jyh Hwang, I-Wen Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
Series:Healthcare
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/9/9/1173
Description
Summary:Background: Dialyzed patients are vulnerable to coronavirus infection disease 2019 (COVID-19). The incidence and outcome of COVID-19 in hemodialysis (HD) patients in Taiwan remain unclear. A series of preventive measures were executed to combat COVID-19 transmission among HD patients. Methods: We carried out a series of forward-looking and practical preventive strategies of COVID-19 control in our HD center. Incidences of COVID-19 of our HD unit were compared with those of national and local estimates from a community outbreak from 15 May to 30 June 2021. Prognostic factors associated with mortality were analyzed. Results: The national incidence of COVID-19 was 0.062%; being highest in Taipei City (0.173%), followed by New Taipei City (0.161%) and Keelung (0.083%). The overall incidence in Keelung HD patients was 0.666%. One patient of our HD center contracted COVID-19 from the household; however, we have contained secondary transmission in our HD center by implementing strict preventive measures. The mortality rate of HD patients in Keelung was 66.6%. The median Ct value of HD patients was 17.53 (11.75–27.90) upon diagnosis. The deceased patients had a higher cardiac/thoracic ratio than alive (0.61 vs. 0.55, <i>p</i> = 0.036). Conclusions: Taking aggressive and proactive infection preventive measures impedes the secondary transmission of COVID-19 in HD facilities. COVID-19-associated mortality was high in HD patients, being the high cardiac-thoracic ratio, an important prognostic factor for clinical outcome of infected HD patients.
ISSN:2227-9032